Humor me, will you? Take a moment right now to do a little inventory of that file cabinet in up in the attic (and by that I mean your noggin.) Dust off those manila file folders packed full of all those memories that for some reason have stood the test of time. Now, try and remember the last time that you truly, wholeheartedly, with-every-being-in-your-body believed and lived in possibility. It was your manifesto because you didn’t know what you didn’t know, or because you refused to have it any other way. Do you remember? Think real hard.
The point is, you probably don’t remember. I don’t really. Or it was so long ago that we’re talking unicorns are real, the Tooth Fairy so generously takes teeth for hard cash, Santa Claus somehow manages to shimmy down the chimney on the eve of December 24th every year kind of possibility – but unfortunately, we all grew up and eventually realized that it’s all a big hoax (or is it?)
It’s such a beautiful part of the human experience that we enter this world only knowing possibility.
But society has worn us down. The innocence bubbles we once floated around the world in have been popped, and we’ve since been conditioned to drag our feet around the dirt and dust while being incessantly bombarded with messages that tell us nasty lies like we’re not worthy, we don’t have enough time and we can’t have it all. But where the hell is the fun in that?!
I’m not saying I’ve been a Belieber, I mean believer, all this time (had to), but I’ve somehow always come back to possibility. I may have strayed in the direction of doubt and despair many a time, but you can be damn sure that I always make my way back to possibility. Pardon me for sounding like a broken record - you’ll understand if you’ve read my previous posts – but like most other things I choose to write about it’s a choice, and not only is it a choice but also a practice. It's also not the easy way, either. It's actually pretty difficult - it's choosing to believe despite what you've seen, experienced or been told time and time again. It's much easier to live inside the box comfort of your box - the familiar, the tried and true, the cozy know-your-limits kind of space.
Each and every day, we can wake up and live in possibility – we can believe it, we can breathe it, we can be it – or we can choose to be confined and defined by constraints and can’ts. Now, I’m not saying that by choosing to live in possibility that all your hopes and dreams will come true. Come on, now. I’m a realist – I really am. That’s completely silly. When we choose to live our possibility, we also have to choose to be OK when something doesn’t quite work out – we have to practice resilience as well. We have to trust that even though one door closed, there’s most likely a reason (i.e. you’re not ready) and that another door is sure to swing open, because one always does. We cannot let the not-right-nows and try-this-one-insteads break our spirit – we have to keep forging on with open minds and most importantly open hearts.
For me, always keeping a space in my heart and head for possibility – even in the seemingly darkest of times – keeps me alive. It keeps me curious. It keeps me chasing down all of the dreams that so many people have told me were just that, dreams, but I knew better than to believe it. It leads me right into the lap of opportunities I never imagined for myself before. And most importantly, it creates space for fun and imagination, because how dreadfully boring does life sound without those two? Absolutely unbearable, really.
I guess what I’m saying is believe in unicorns, you guys.